Russia Launches Proton-M with Military Satellite payload

Russia on Sunday successfully launched a Proton-M rocket carrying a satellite into orbit in the first such launch since one of the rockets fell back to Earth soon after liftoff in May.

The Proton-M rocket lifted off on schedule from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 12:23 am Moscow time (2023 GMT Saturday), carrying a Russian communications satellite, Russia's space agency said in a statement.

"At 09:26 Moscow time (0526 GMT), the satellite separated from the Briz-M upper-stage rocket and reached the set orbit," Roscosmos said.

Russia had suspended launches of Proton-M rockets after one carrying one of the country's most advanced communications satellites failed less than 10 minutes after liftoff on May 16 and burnt up in the upper layers of the atmosphere.

The Proton is the workhorse of Russia's space industry, earning tens of millions of dollars a year by launching Western and Asian satellites.

The upgraded M version of the Proton has experienced a string of problems that have threatened Russia's reputation as a reliable and cost-effective alternative to US and European rockets.

This image describes the trajectory of the Luch-M data relay network, a previous Proton launch mission.

Credit: RussianSpaceWeb

Sunday’s payload is a Russian Aerospace Defence Forces' geostationary satellite known as Olimp-K (Luch).

According to a Komersant report, the satellite will serve a dual role: One being electronic intelligence (SIGINT) and the other is providing secure communications for governmental use.

The Luch designation has historically been used for satellites with a data relay role. Therefore, the Olimp-K designation might relate to the ELINT payload while the Luch designation relates to the data relay payload.

The Proton-M was previously grounded in July 2013 when it crashed back to Earth with three Russian-made Glonass navigation satellites.

The Proton-M which lifted off Sunday is making use of a Briz-M fourth stage.

The Briz-M consists of a central propulsion unit with a detachable torus-shaped propellant tank mounted around it.

All four of the Proton’s stages burn unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH) fuel, oxidised by dinitrogen tetroxide (N2O4).

This propellant combination is hypergolic, meaning the propellants will spontaneously ignite on contact, however it is also highly toxic which has led to calls for the Proton to be withdrawn from use.

It is expected that the Angara rocket, which is currently undergoing testing, will eventually replace Proton.

Baikonur: Soyuz Launch Site in Economic Crisis

Although its future might have appeared certain until 2050, Baikonur may not perhaps remain Russia's primary space hub after the Soviet Union's demise. Sooner or later, it has to be replaced.

Only 12 Proton-M launches were approved by Kazakhstan for 2013 instead of the planned 17.

The decision has put the future of Russian-Kazakh space cooperation under further threat. What does fate have in store for the famed launch pad in the near future?

It seems the status quo, which has survived in the space world for several decades, is to face an imminent challenge. Once again, Baikonur cosmodrome, Russia's main launch pad, is at the centre of the conflict.

Kazakhstan has refused to approve the limit of 17 Proton launches that Russia asked for in 2013, allowing only 12, even fewer than in 2012. Russia's response could be to reduce the annual rent paid to Kazakhstan for the site.

Proton-M, currently the heaviest launcher in the Russian space programme, provided 10 of the 24 launches in 2012 (plus an additional Proton-K launch, also from Baikonur).

Its capabilities could only be replaced by Angara, which is still-under-development. Moreover, as Russian space officials have announced, no launch pads for Protons are available other than those at Baikonur.

Should the available number of launches diminish, a good deal of the contracts with launch operators will come under threat of termination or penalty sanctions.

One apparent reason for the decision could be the Proton rocket's toxic propellant, perhaps a legitimate bargaining point. Last year also saw two failures, in August and December, fortunately, they occurred in space and had no impact on the environment. As a result, the next Proton launch was postponed until at least the end of March.

Few however doubt that the real cause of the tension is Russia's apparent future withdrawal from Baikonur. Kazakhstan is concerned about the future of the space port after the new Vostochnyi cosmodrome is up and running, which may be as soon as 2015.

Moreover, Vostochnyi also threatens Baiterek, the joint Russian-Kazakh endeavour at Baikonur, which was initially intended mainly for Angara launches. If Russia builds Vostochnyi, there will be no reason to maintain another launch pad incurring additional rental costs.

Russia has also announced that it is going to make more use of its northern Plesetsk cosmodrome, and launch the majority of state satellites from there, rather than Kazakhstan.

The conflict follows a statement by Talgat Musabaev, head of the Kazakh space agency, in early December 2012, blaming Russia for failing to follow the Baiterek agreement and calling for Proton launches to be cut. As the dispute heats up, both sides will have to make decisions with long-term consequences.

Although its future might have appeared certain until 2050, Baikonur may not perhaps remain Russia's primary space hub after the Soviet Union's demise. Sooner or later, it has to be replaced. On the other hand, Kazakhstan does have a usable cosmodrome, but who will use it?

Soyuz Launch of Proton-M carrier rocket postponed

The launch of a Russian Proton-M carrier rocket with a Dutch telecommunications satellite SES-4 (NSS-14) onboard was called off on Monday due to "technical problems", a spokesman for the Khrunichev State Research and Production Center said.

He said the new date for launch was being discussed. He did not elaborate on the cause of the delay.

The launch would have been the 70th commercial launch of a Proton carrier rocket since 1995 and the 10th launch of this type of carrier rocket this year.

The SES-4 satellite, built by U.S. company Space Systems/Loral for the Dutch operator Ses World Skies, is designed to provide various satellite services to customers in the Middle East, Europe, Africa and Latin America.

Russia has experienced a number of launch mishaps in the past 13 months, including the crash of a Meridian dual purpose satellite shortly after take-off last week.

That incident led the head of Russia's Roscosmos space agency to say the industry was "in crisis."

The rocket failures come on top of the loss of Phobos-Grunt, Russia's most ambitious planetary mission in decades.

It became stuck in Earth orbit after its launch in November and is expected to fall back to Earth in mid-January.

A Siberian resident miraculously escaped serious injury or even death when a fragment of a Russian communication satellite crashed through the roof of his house.

A Meridian satellite that was launched on Friday from the Plesetsk space center in northern Russia on board a Soyuz-2 carrier rocket crashed near the Siberian city of Tobolsk minutes after liftoff.

Eight satellite fragments were found in an area some 100 kilometers from the city of Novosibirsk.

One, a titanium ball of about five kilograms, fell on to the roof of a village house in the Ordyn district.

The house owner, Andrei Krivorukov, had gone out to the yard to fetch firewood minutes before the crash.

Roscosmos to launch Soyuz from Kourou for first time - despite loss of Progress-M

The maiden flight of a Soyuz from Europe's space base will go ahead as scheduled on October 20, as it is a different version from the rocket involved in Wednesday's launch failure by Russia, Arianespace said on Thursday.

"The problem that occurred yesterday is linked to a third-stage motor, and the Soyuz model that we will be using uses a different third stage," Jean-Yves Le Gall, president and chief executive of the launch company, told AFP.

"It is not the same version of the rocket."

The European Space Agency (ESA) and Russia are deploying Soyuz at Kourou, French Guiana, under a 2003 accord to provide a mid-sized launcher for Arianespace, which markets ESA's launch vehicles.

The model that will be deployed there is a Soyuz-ST, a spinoff of the Soyuz-2. It is designed to take nearly three tonnes into geostationary transfer orbit.

Its first flight will lift the first two staellites in Europe's Galileo navigation system, the competitor to the US Global Positioning System (GPS).

"In principle, the launch date of October 20 is confirmed, because the Soyuz being used for Galileo is not impacted by yesterday's failure," said Le Gall.

An unnamed Russian official told the Interfax news agency on Thursday that "the launch of Soyuz carrier rockets" had been suspended until the loss of a unmanned craft taking cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) had been explained.

The move has caused a ripple of concern for the crew of the ISS, as the Soyuz, a workhorse of space for half a century, is used both as a launcher for cargo and for passenger vehicles.

If the Soyuz-launched Progress freigher is out of operation, that will leave the ISS with ESA's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) and Japan's H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV).

The latest ATV, Edoardo Amaldi, is currently being brought by ship to Kourou.

"Its scheduled launch is February 28 2012," said Le Gall, who said there was "a small margin" for bringing it forward if need be, but this would only be by a few days given the tight schedule.

The ISS has capsules moored to the station enabling all crew onboard to return to Earth, either on scheduled missions or in an emergency.

ISS crew safe despite Russian Progress supply failure

Russian mission control and NASA said Wednesday there was no need to evacuate the six-member crew from the International Space Station despite the launch failure of a vessel carrying tonnes of supplies.

"Of course we have to study the situation, but provisionally we can say that it is not so critical that we should talk about the premature return of crew members from the ISS," mission control spokesman Vladimir Solovyov told Interfax.

The Russian space agency Roskosmos added in a separate statement that the accident "will not impact the life support" systems of the ISS crew.

Roskosmos said the unmanned Progress cargo vessel experienced propulsion system problems 5 minutes and 25 seconds after its launch Thursday from the Baikonur space centre in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan.

Local officials reported said fragments of what appeared to be the Progress craft landed in the Siberian region of Altai, which has borders with China and Mongolia.

Solovyov said the international team on board the ISS had enough oxygen and water along with other supplies to last until the next Russian cargo mission's arrival, which is scheduled for October 28.

NASA echoed Russia's confidence (but then they have little choice).

"We have a very good backload of food, fuel and other consumables on board the ISS after the STS-135 shuttle mission," NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries told AFP.

The loss will require some changes to the "overall logistic but it should not have an immediate impact on the crew," he added.

"It's premature to discuss the possibility of reducing the size of the next crew. I don't anticipate that."

The next manned mission to the ISS is provisionally scheduled for September 22, although those missions only have enough room to take up the basic supplies.

An industry source told RIA Novosti said the crew -- who besides three Russians include two US astronauts and a spaceman from Japan -- may have to conserve on both food and water because of the accident.

A source said space officials had informed Andrei Borisenko, the Russian captain of the ISS, of the accident and noted that he took the news calmly.


ISS crew safe despite supply failure: Russia, US

Russia Roscomos Grounds Proton-M rocket after Launch Failure

Russia has grounded its workhorse Proton-M rocket as it investigates a launch mishap last week that placed a $300 million telecommunications satellite into a bad orbit, AFP reported Aug. 23. 

“The preparation of Proton-M carrier and Briz-M upper stage rocket launches is temporarily suspended until the reasons for the Express-AM4 satellite’s aborted ascent are learned,” the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, said in a statement.

Roscosmos said it had not given up entirely on Express-AM4 and was still trying to establish whether the satellite, launched Aug. 18, could be maneuvered into the correct orbit.

Missing Russian satellite found off designated orbit

Russia's Proton-M rocket with the Express-AM4 satellite was launched from the Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan early on Thursday but mission control failed to establish communication with it.

The Russian Express-AM4 communication satellite, missing after Thursday's launch, could not separate from the booster and was found off the designated orbit, a source in the Russian space program said on Friday.

Experts told RIA Novosti the satellite is useless unless separation from the Briz-M booster rocket is performed.

"If separation from the booster fails, the spacecraft is done for, it won't be able to perform the designated tasks," an expert said on the condition of anonymity.

Another expert said the satellite was designed to operate at a geostationary orbit at a fixed station-keeping point which it was unable to reach.

"The booster creates a huge additional burden and the satellite's propulsion engine, which is not designed for maneuvering with additional weight, won't be able to take the satellite into the assigned geostationary orbit and station-keep it in the orbital position," the expert said.

The satellite's launch and orbital operation has been fully insured for 7.5 billion rubles ($259 million).

Russia's Proton-M rocket with the Express-AM4 satellite was launched from the Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan early on Thursday but mission control failed to establish communication with it.

Russian Proton-M Rocket to launch US Telecoms satellite

A Russian Proton-M rocket carrying a U.S. telecommunications satellite has been delivered to a launch pad at the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan in preparation for the February 12 launch.

The carrier rocket will put into orbit the Intelsat-16 satellite, which was developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation for the Intelsat Ltd., a leading provider of satellite services worldwide.

The Intelsat-16 satellite is equipped with 24 transponders and will provide telecommunications services to customers in Brazil and Mexico.

Intelsat Ltd. operates the world's most extensive satellite network, comprising over 50 satellites.

Russia last launched an Intelsat satellite in December last year.